LA MACCHINAZIONE

PPP, DEATH OF A POET

In the night between the 1st and the 2nd of November 1975 Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered at the Idroscalo. Everyone knows Pasolini, everyone has an idea of how he was murdered, few people know about the events that led to his tragic end.

In the summer of ’75, Pier Paolo Pasolini is editing one of his most controversial movies, Salò, a film that he stated “surprizes even me despite being it’s author”.At that time Pasolini is particularly restless. Italians have just obtained the right to divorce and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) seems to be about to win the general elections causing some worry across the western block. Pasolini, however, is not convinced that it will be so. From his point of view, Italy is truly moving right, towards a consumer culture which he sees as “a dictatorship worst than Fascism”.Whilst working on his film, Pasolini is writing a book, Petrolio, neither novel nor essay, it is the condemnation of a political power that he sees as corrupt down to the bone.In those same days Pasolini is seeing a young man from the working-class suburbs of Rome, Pino Pelosi. Pasolini and Pelosi meet regularly becoming the talk of the roman suburbs. In these same suburbs move shady characters which have little to do with Pasolini’s poetic view of life and have chosen the route to crime. Many belong to a criminal organization that is gradually taking over the city: the Banda della MaglianaOne night, the negative of Salò is stolen from the Technicolor’s laboratory.Initially, the producer receives a ransom request for a huge sum of money which later becomes much more reasonable.In the night between the first and the second of November 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini drives to the Idroscalo to retrieve his film.Truly he is going straight into a trap.His murder has been planned in every minimum detail, by many accomplices, some willing and some unaware, all similar and all equally guilty.